What song did Pete Townsend write that gave him the idea to write Tommy?

Answer 1

The child abuse that features so prominently in the story caused a good deal of outcry when it was first released. It has often been claimed that the basic idea of the Tommy story was lifted from The Pretty Things' 1968 concept album S.F. Sorrow, and Townshend himself later admitted that he listened to the Pretty Things LP extensively and that it was a major inspiration for Tommy. Steve Marriott also claimed that some musical elements in Tommy were "borrowed" from the music of The Small Faces. Notwithstanding the numerous outside influences, several structural precedents for Tommy exist in Townshend's own work, including "Glow Girl" (1968), "Rael" (1967), and the sectional work "A Quick One While He's Away" (1966).

A couple of years before the album came out Pete Townshend explained his ideas and apparently actually thought out some of the structure of the opera during a famous Rolling Stone interview. John Entwistle claimed years after the release that he had never actually listened to the album because he was so sick of it after the endless takes and re-takes.

Answer 2

"Glow Girl" (from the LP "The Who Sell Out") includes the seed line, "It's a girl, Mrs. Walker, it's a girl. It's a girl, Mrs. Walker, it's a girl," along with the same melody line that would be repeated in Tommy.

Answer 3

just dont know. on the sellout aulbum they ran a few songs together and were the first to do that.